My Australian Women Writers Wrap Up, 2012

Thank you to Elizabeth and all those who have helped make the AWW 2012 Challenge such a success. The ongoing discussion of the relationship of gender and writing has made the site unique. I am personally grateful for how AWW has led me to read fascinating books about a place that I had previously known little about. I also appreciate discovering Australian individuals online who share my interests and intellectual curiosities. And I love having found Spinifix Press. I just wish it weren’t so hard to find recent Australian books in the USA. I finally gave up on looking for them.

Marilyn, thanks so much for being part of AWW throughout the year, especially given your circumstances – living so far away and with health challenges. I’ve enjoyed your reviews and appreciated your contribution to the AWW blog. And what an achievement, reading so many books by Australian women despite difficulty finding them. I do hope you’ll join again next year – perhaps in combination with your Women of Color challenge? I must remember to put up a list of books by Australian Indigenous writers on the new site.

Your blog has meant a great deal to me. Of course, I will continue. I can’t stop myself now. And another word of thanks for your blog being there when I was creating mine. I followed some of what you have done and even copied some of your programs for posting reviews.
Glad you are adding a list of Indigenous writers to your blog. I have been wanting to suggest it but you are already doing so much. If you forget I will remind you. I suggested on my blog that yours was a good place to find Australian women.

I’m very impressed by your list. I haven’t read all those books, and I live here! There’s one that’s not on the list that you might enjoy: The Fortunes of Richard Mahony, by Henry Handel Richardson (see my latest blog at the link below). It’s a big book, available in a Text Classic ($14 AUD). She (her real name was Ethel Richardson) based it on her father’s life. She also wrote another big novel, which is wonderful too but very different: Maurice Guest (also in a Text Classic). I’ve written a blog about this too. It is set in Leipzig. Happy reading!

Great wrap up and great achievement Marilyn … it was great to meet you through this challenge and to see what a non-Australian makes of Australian writers. It’s a rare thing for us really, to see non-Aussies review our authors.

Thanks. I’d like to follow your blog more closely, but few of the books you review are available here in the USA. Some are beginning to be as ebooks. I just found Empire Day that I have been looking for ever since you reviewed almost a year ago. Most Australian publishers are missing the boat by not offering more ebooks and lowering shipping costs. Pass the word along.

Well, Marilyn, you have put me to shame, having read a great deal more by Australian women writers than I have! It’s so great to see international people contributing to the challenge. You obviously enjoyed Kate Grenville’s books a lot – me too. I’ll look forward to reading your reviews for the challenge in 2013. Best wishes – Annabel